Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly | (Discussion Thread) *Stream*

MouseTeeth

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macpat said:
Finally feel like I have given this enough spins to give this an honest, objective review. I've been anticipating this album for a while. Loved GKMC from jump, grew to love the greatness that was Section 80. So my expectations for this album was at an all time high. However I begin to get worried about the album as time passed and we got to about 2 years before finally being able to hear this thing. And the reason I worried is because I felt K.Dot might be trying to hard to make a masterpiece of an album. And unfortunately I feel like my worries came to friction.


Off jump, first listen, this album was pretty meh to me. After the first listen, which allowed my expectations to change towards the album, my feelings towards it got better. Gave it a few gym spins, a few car spins, and a few headphone spins and I feel like its a good album, but I don't think its worthy of all the critical acclaim that it is getting. But its going to get the critical acclaim because I think that is exactly what K.Dot was shooting for. The production is great, but I feel like its "safe" production for the casual and mainstream crowd. In fact I feel like the production of the album pretty much overshadows everything K.Dot says on the album, and his rapping almost feels force over some of the beats on the album. And while there is some value in being able to easily play a CD from track 1 to the end when you decide to listen to a CD, I think it also says something about the lack of standout tracks when you never feel the need to just skip to a song and listen to it. The only songs that come close to that for me is "How Much a Dollar Cost" and "Mortal Man" which leads me to the inclusion of the universally loved Tupac "interview" at the end of the album. Nice touch but I can't help but feel like it was another addition to the album to grab at the hearts of everyone to love this album.


Another issue for me, is for some reason, between GKMC up until now, K.Dot has just picked up this fraud type of vibe to me. How he acts so surprised at his success, how he supposedly expected everyone to take the Control verse as just rap, his psuedo militant raps, but then race friendly attitude in interviews, the ambigious Rolling Stones cover, his beef with Meek when he can/could've take on much bigger foes, and the fact he acts like there is no machine behind him. Despite being a fan of him as an artist dude has just been rubbing me the wrong way a lot between now and GKMC and I think it plays a part in regards to how I feel about the album. Because is this really the music dude wanted to make, or is this the music he made to get the critical acclaim/Grammy type of shyt that I think he seeks.

In the end I like the album, but I think its getting overrated. People tend to mistake something different for being something special and I think a lot of that is going on here. Album will continue to get spins from me here and there, but if I had to choose, I'd much rather listen to Section.80, GKMC before listening to this album.
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Amen my good sir. RIP to your rep for telling the truth tho...
 
NoHalfWay

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macpat said:
"Mortal Man" which leads me to the inclusion of the universally loved Tupac "interview" at the end of the album. Nice touch but I can't help but feel like it was another addition to the album to grab at the hearts of everyone to love this album.

Another issue for me, is for some reason, between GKMC up until now, K.Dot has just picked up this fraud type of vibe to me. How he acts so surprised at his success, how he supposedly expected everyone to take the Control verse as just rap, his psuedo militant raps, but then race friendly attitude in interviews, the ambigious Rolling Stones cover, his beef with Meek when he can/could've take on much bigger foes, and the fact he acts like there is no machine behind him. Despite being a fan of him as an artist dude has just been rubbing me the wrong way a lot between now and GKMC and I think it plays a part in regards to how I feel about the album.
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You reading my mind, breh? :leostare:
 
bl2k8

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macpat said:
Finally feel like I have given this enough spins to give this an honest, objective review. I've been anticipating this album for a while. Loved GKMC from jump, grew to love the greatness that was Section 80. So my expectations for this album was at an all time high. However I begin to get worried about the album as time passed and we got to about 2 years before finally being able to hear this thing. And the reason I worried is because I felt K.Dot might be trying to hard to make a masterpiece of an album. And unfortunately I feel like my worries came to friction.


Off jump, first listen, this album was pretty meh to me. After the first listen, which allowed my expectations to change towards the album, my feelings towards it got better. Gave it a few gym spins, a few car spins, and a few headphone spins and I feel like its a good album, but I don't think its worthy of all the critical acclaim that it is getting. But its going to get the critical acclaim because I think that is exactly what K.Dot was shooting for. The production is great, but I feel like its "safe" production for the casual and mainstream crowd. In fact I feel like the production of the album pretty much overshadows everything K.Dot says on the album, and his rapping almost feels force over some of the beats on the album. And while there is some value in being able to easily play a CD from track 1 to the end when you decide to listen to a CD, I think it also says something about the lack of standout tracks when you never feel the need to just skip to a song and listen to it. The only songs that come close to that for me is "How Much a Dollar Cost" and "Mortal Man" which leads me to the inclusion of the universally loved Tupac "interview" at the end of the album. Nice touch but I can't help but feel like it was another addition to the album to grab at the hearts of everyone to love this album.


Another issue for me, is for some reason, between GKMC up until now, K.Dot has just picked up this fraud type of vibe to me. How he acts so surprised at his success, how he supposedly expected everyone to take the Control verse as just rap, his psuedo militant raps, but then race friendly attitude in interviews, the ambigious Rolling Stones cover, his beef with Meek when he can/could've take on much bigger foes, and the fact he acts like there is no machine behind him. Despite being a fan of him as an artist dude has just been rubbing me the wrong way a lot between now and GKMC and I think it plays a part in regards to how I feel about the album. Because is this really the music dude wanted to make, or is this the music he made to get the critical acclaim/Grammy type of shyt that I think he seeks.

In the end I like the album, but I think its getting overrated. People tend to mistake something different for being something special and I think a lot of that is going on here. Album will continue to get spins from me here and there, but if I had to choose, I'd much rather listen to Section.80, GKMC before listening to this album.
Click to expand...
This some honest as shyt. I do feel like the production overshadows the lyrics which is slightly disappointing. I would say production on this is 10/10 and 9/10 on GKMC.
 
bl2k8

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NoHalfWay said:
I think the album is nice but the stanning got so bad for it I started shytting on it just to counteract the hype.

Chris Rock saying MBDTF is better than Thriller :wtf::dahell::mjlol:
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I forgot about that shyt after about a month breh. Maybe because it was Yes first album after he went to the 808s sound or maybe because people wanted to crown something classic for the new decade I don't see it though
 
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Pifferry said:
That's a massive plus for me.
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I'm always curious about what people mean when they say his voice is a negative. I think he has a great voice for rapping. Its like he's a grizzled old blues singer to me instead of the usual studio production singer. Some people hate the voices, but I love it. Its part of what makes him the organically produced artist vs the studio maven everyone is trying to get. I like that he's one who's flow is versatile and can change at a moment's notice. On Hood Critic, when he's talking about he's the only one that can push the button, I love how he switches up quickly within the verse and switches right back. "Hey K-Dot, what up, I heard they opened up Pandora's box, I box em' all in by a landslide", is like perfect for the little conversation there and he slips right into the normal flow for that song immediately on the next word, same beat. I like hearing little stuff like that and I think that's part of what makes him elite vs others.

This is coming from someone who didn't even pay much attention to him until I decided to get back into mainstream music in 2013.
 
NoHalfWay

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You gotta respect Kendrick's musical knowledge, he definitely uses his voice as instrument.

It doesn't always come out perfect tho. There's a couple tracks like "u" and "King Kunta" where I think his voice is terrible. But for the most part his voice is tolerable on this album.
 
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